In a rare meeting of contemporary and traditional Chinese ink, Gianguan Auctions brings to the podium on December 12 both the creativity of the New York art scene in the '70s and that of 11th century court painting. 

Then the cast iron district, SoHo was the breeding ground for cross cultural pollination. This is where reputations of many current blue-chip artists were born. Among them, a circle of Chinese artists who approached abstraction, pop, mixed-media and text based works with a heritage of the power of the brush.

Hsia Yan, (Xia Yang) b. 1932 and still active, brought a tri-culturalism to an appropriation of Georges Seurat's  “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."  Beginning with a photo-realistic rendering of the famous painting, he added his own Fuzzy Line ink technique to the figures. The result is visualized motion that enlivens the figures with a sort of restless animation.   "After Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon" is from a private collection. An acrylic-on-canvas, 37” X 50” (94 X 128.3 cm, it is conservatively estimated at upwards of $30,000.

From the same era are works by Ting Walasse (1929-1910). The 1970 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, his works often combine text with enhanced photographs or bold colors. An example is a set of 10 hors-de-commerce from "All In My Head." Several double sided works are also included.

Underpinning the breakthrough of both artists is the day's marquee painting "Snow Mountain," an 11th century hanging scroll by court painter Gun Xi (1000-1090 AD). Even a millinium ago, artists were experimenting and this work is a rare example of the perspective known as “the angle of of totality.” Gun Xi accomplished this by bringing out the details in a distant mountain as it ascends from a stream through the scree of falling rock to treeless terrain and culminates in roiling clouds. Signed Guo Xi, the work has 8 Emperors’ seals and seventeen collectors’ seals.  It is valued at $1.2 million or higher.

For detailed information on the paintings in Gianguan Auctions December 12 sale, please visit the catalog at www.gianguanaucitons.com.

The auction will be held live on Wednesday, December 12 at 6 pm EDT at the gallery and online at liveauctioneers.com and invaluale.com. Gallery previews are currently running and will continue through Wednesday (10 a.m.–5 p.m.), closing just in time for viewers to attend the auction live. For enquiries, please email info@gianguanauctions.com or call 212-867-7288.